A Star In Nine Months

Some restaurants wait years for a Michelin star. Thornton's waited nine months^[1].

Kevin Thornton opened the restaurant in 1995^[3]. By 1996 it had a star^[2]. Travel Extra's record of every Irish Michelin restaurant lists Thornton's stars from 1996 onwards, first at Portobello Road and later at the Fitzwilliam Hotel^[2].

Small Room, Big Ambition

It was not a big operation. The dining room held around 45 guests^[1]. The kitchen brigade was just five cooks, with plans to add a sixth^[1]. Every plate passed through very few hands.

The Bocuse Effect

His training showed. He had cooked at Restaurant Paul Bocuse in France, one of the great temples of French cooking^[1][3]. He brought back its discipline and its respect for produce, and added his own love of Irish ingredients.

Not For Sale

He also showed he would not cut corners for money. He later told Caterer & Hotelkeeper that he had turned down a rent-free property worth £200,000, because of the conditions that came with it^[1]. He wanted control of his own cooking.

His first restaurant, the Wine Epergne, had already won rave reviews^[3]. Now he had the recognition to match.

Just The Beginning

A single star was a huge achievement for a young restaurant. But Thornton aimed higher. He wanted a second star, something no Irish chef had ever won^[1][2].

He had also spent four years before the opening helping to set up a chef degree course at a Dublin college^[1]. He knew how to teach a young team, and that mattered in a kitchen of only five cooks^[1].

Lessons From The Ground Up

His road to the star had been anything but ordinary. He had worked in the Cashel Palace Hotel's vegetable gardens and in an abattoir, and studied fine cooking in Galway before he ever stood at Bocuse's stoves^[3]. That hands-on knowledge of produce showed on the plate.

The next five years would be about one thing: getting there. The farm boy from Cashel had become one of the most talked-about chefs in Dublin^[1][2][3].